come up with the plan, and sold it to the others, and my job now was to sit and not break anything for the next hour or so.
And I did trust them. Well, mostly I trusted Arcturus to execute a plan with skill and utter ruthlessness. But I… also hadn’t expected Acubens to speak up for me.
Acubens. I thought of the defiant, sharp grin on his lips, close enough to touch. For the first time since I’d met him, he’d left me at a loss.
I was still sorting through my feelings when Wraith appeared in front of me.
I sat up immediately. “How did things go?” I said urgently.
Wraith gave me a lazy, pleased smile. A little smear of blood decorated his cheek. Slices of pale, hard flesh gleamed through his torn shirt. “As you’ve seen demonstrated before, Spellbreaker tattoos do very little against a demon’s innate abilities. The Nightfelds brought Clytemnestra and Aegis successfully into our ambush. I overpowered Aegis, the Nightfelds had no difficulty at all with Clytemnestra, and now the both of them are waiting in storage.”
I breathed out a sigh of relief. “Good. Where are the others now?”
“Right behind me,” said Wraith, walking over to the door and unlocking it from the inside.
He turned to give me one last smile. “My part in tonight’s drama is done. The rest is up to you. I look forward to hearing what happens next, Cassandra Turner.”
He disappeared as the door burst open. Acubens ran in, a heavy satchel slung over his shoulder, followed by Arcturus.
“You two okay?” I asked.
“Of course we are,” Acubens huffed, digging through the satchel for a heavy-duty, rune-etched pair of shears. “Cly might have stolen your magic, but she can’t use it for shit.” He knelt at my feet, grabbed my wrist, and carefully began to cut through the shackle.
Meanwhile, Arcturus took out Cly’s phone and went to sit at the desk. He dialed a number and waited, his pale eyes gaining the chilly focus of a predator on the hunt.
“This is Arcturus of House Nightfeld,” he said into the phone. “I have your daughter. I am willing to return her alive if my conditions are met.”
We were giving the Redbriars a taste of their own medicine.
A frantic voice sounded on the other end. For the first time ever, I saw Arcturus Nightfeld smile, and it was absolutely, inhumanly terrifying.
“Yes,” he said. “I am aware this is an act of war.”
And then his face returned to its usual hard impassiveness. “My conditions are as follows,” he continued. “You will return all ancestral artifacts originally belonging to the Nightfelds in your possession. You will renounce your claims to all Nightfeld vassals, effective tomorrow. And you will give me the human woman Kathleen Turner, alive and unharmed.”
Arcturus ignored the dirty look I sent his way. I didn’t appreciate him using this whole business for his family’s gain that blatantly, while making my mom’s rescue sound like an afterthought. But I couldn’t stop him, and I couldn’t do this without him, I admitted inwardly. And at least this way, he was very clearly attaching his family name to the venture. In a hostage exchange, Leda Redbriar would screw over a half-blood bastard without family backing much more readily than she’d dare screw over mighty House Nightfeld.
“I’ve almost got it…” muttered Acubens, swiping his hair out of his eyes, continuing his work while Arcturus negotiated with Leda Redbriar. “There.” The shackle fell away from my wrist.
I breathed a sigh of relief as the dull pressure of suppression faded away. “Thanks,” I said, flexing my hand.
“It wasn’t a good look on you,” Acubens said archly. “I expect to be the one wearing handcuffs when we’re together.”
Only Acubens would demand handcuffs. I felt a ridiculous warmth inside my chest. And… elsewhere. “I’ll agree to that.”
He touched the red, swollen scabbing where the shackle had rested and healed it to smooth skin. “I brought you something to eat, too,” he said, handing me a soup thermos and a spoon.
I unscrewed the lid. “It’s… hot gruel.”
Acubens rolled his eyes. “It’s easy to digest, since you haven’t eaten in a day.”
“It’s gray. Aren’t there those chocolates you gave Cly?”
“I garnished those with curls of soap. Principle of the thing.”
I sighed and gingerly took a spoonful. My eyes widened. “Okay, fine. That’s genuinely impressive.”
“I made it myself,” Acubens said smugly.
Abandoning all dignity, I chugged the rest directly from the thermos. I was starving.
As I wiped my mouth, Arcturus came over, finished with his phone call. “It’s